


Easily broken

by Parselmouth_bloodtraitor



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon Compliant, Chess, Episode Tag, Episode: s03e21 The Fox and the Wolf, Gen, Insanity, Irony, M/M, Nogitsune POV, Nogitsune Stiles, basically ambiguous writing in general, borrows from many of the episodes from this season but mainly this one, generous use of riddles and quotes, season 3b
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-14 17:36:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1275118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parselmouth_bloodtraitor/pseuds/Parselmouth_bloodtraitor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow."<br/>-Aesop</p>
            </blockquote>





	Easily broken

**Author's Note:**

> All quotes either used in this story or used as inspiration are written in the end notes

 

 

_Hello, Stiles. Want to play a game?_

_(What kind of game?)_

_Chess._

 

 

There was no one who loved this boy and no one he loved; at least, not in _that_ way, not in the fun way. There were people he cared for though, and those people would have to do. After all, friends and family can be just as much fun to toy with. It would still cause pain in Stiles, would still cause chaos in this town. Not much effort needs to put in even; this'll be easy.

_See kid? I've got you. We're going to destroy them, Stiles. All of them._

_(You are. Not we)_

_Not yet._

 

 

The sheriff is already a waiting destruction, barely held together by alcohol and half-hearted hope. He's easy to break, easy to harm, just needed a little push is all, just needed a little reminder of what caused him so much despair in the first place. After all, he watched his wife forget who he was, so why not open him up to the possibly that his son would as well? Open him up to the idea of watching his entire family leave him, slowly and gradually?

Oh, the irony as he uses alcohol to forget them the same way as she forgot him, as Stiles will forget him.

_Loss and possession, death and life, are one. There falls no shadow where there shines no sun._

 

 

Scott had promised Stiles he would do anything to save him. An alpha, a true alpha, trying to protect his own. Wouldn't it be ironic if those he was trying to protect were the ones that betrayed him, if those were the cause of his demise, his _death?_

Stiles watches as the blade rips through Scott's skin. Images seize his mind of Scott dying - blood flowing from his mouth, his guts falling out of his body, his neck snapped in half - he's being reminded of how mortal Scott really is and he can't push the thoughts away since they are not his own being pressed upon him. He's screaming so loudly; it's thrilling. 

_(Please don't kill him)_

  _But that's supreme irony of life, Stiles. Hardly anyone gets out of it alive._

 

 

_Let me in Stiles let me in let meinletmeinletmein_

Oh, a hero complex. That'll be handy. Why not give him the love he craves just to take it away from him, have him fight for her to live, do anything to let her survive? He's stopped counting his fingers, he has nothing left to tell him that this is not real.

_What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story. And the greatest good is little enough; for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams._

A nogistune, a trickster, can trick everyone after all, and Deaton may not have been fooled earlier but Stiles will be so easy.

_(Fine, come in, just don't her)_

Like father, like son. Easily broken.

 

 

It's chess, just with higher stakes. The next piece captured is the next victim. Stiles scrambles to hide each piece, tries to think a million steps ahead so that he can protect his friends.

It's pointless really. He can't win. But at least it's making the game fun.

_Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it._

 He moves Allison's knight out of harm's way; it's a little disheartening. Scott wasn't killed before Deaton intervened, but he could be broken by Allison's death. Oh, imagine the pain, the suffering, as he realizes that he still loved her, only after she had died. It'd be delicious.

_She's coming to the house with her father and yours in mere moments. Why bother saving her when there's no way she can make it out of this alive?_

On the next move, he shifts Isaac's position.

_Why save the boy who stole Scott from you? Why save the boy who took your best friend for his own? He's so close to death already, Stiles. Why not just push him a little further?_

Images of Isaac's lifeless body encompass Stiles' mind, and it's wonderful since Stiles thought them on his own. He still moves the piece out of harm's way, but it's wonderful progress in the remolding of his mind.

The next move is aimed towards his knight, Derek. And there's no way around it either. He's trapped. Either he has to give up someone else or let Derek be the next victim. Perhaps to some sort of crime involving fire; the irony in it will be hilarious. Stiles hesitates for a moment, then his eyes flit across the board in a frenzy as he attempts to find a way to save him. Tedious.

_There's no way out of this, Stiles. Just give him up. That is, unless you want to sacrifice someone else instead._

He could move Isaac to block the path to Derek, but why would he bother in that? Derek has never meant anything to him.

But why is he hesitating?

Unless-

Oh.

_Oh._

_This will be fun._

There's no point to playing this game anymore even. Derek seems to be Stiles weak point; it's like checkmate has been called with capture of his knight. It'd be more appropriate for Derek's name to be on the king. Let's change that, give a riddle to the search party, give them something to wonder about. Stiles' hand moves on it's own to knock Isaac's piece down as well.  _Ah, yes, progress._

_Let's take this to Derek's loft instead, Stiles. Make it better, make it more ironic, when we kill him._

Stiles screams and shouts and fights and it's fucking hilarious.

 

 

 _It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,  
_  
 _Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.  
_  
 _It lies behind stars and under hills,  
_  
 _And empty holes it fills.  
_  
 _It comes first and follows after,  
_  
 _Ends light, kills laughter._  
  
What is it, Stiles?

 _(I - I don't know)_ His voice sounds so raw.

_Oh it's so simple. It's darkness_

_(Please don't kill him. Please don't kill Derek)_

_Don't be ridiculous. Men don't die of darkness; they die of cold, starvation, broken necks._

 

 

They don't look at Stiles like he's human anymore. They look at him as if he's a vulture - hovering, biding its time. As if they are looking into his soul and all they seen is darkness, unnatural, hostile and menacing darkness. Chris argent pulls a gun on him.

_People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within._

"Don't you dare shoot my son!"

"Oh, go ahead. Shoot me."  _I dare you. Make a move, Argent. Let's see how Derek reacts to Stiles blood coating his walls._ "Shoot me!"

 Derek is on him then, snuck up from behind. He's thrown into the wall a moment later, and Stiles is begging and pleading for it all to the end. Derek looks defeated already, looks like he never wants to injure Stiles, like he never wanted to apprehend him in the first place. His eyes look devastated at the image of Stiles standing over him, massive and deadly. He's not going to try to stop him.

 _Oh, look at that. He cared for you, too._ But Stiles isn't listening.

_(Don't hurt him don't hurt him don'thurthim)_

Turns out men are very easily killed by broken necks.

Turns out Stiles is very easily broken by killed men.

_Power may be at the end of a gun, but sometimes it's also at the end of a shadow._

 

 

There are no chess games played after that. Stiles doesn't communicate much after that at all. Just watches, studies. It's hopeless really, there's nothing Stiles can do with whatever he learns.

_Why watch, Stiles, when you can join in on the fun?_

_(The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness)_

It's tragic, how hopeful he is. It's hilarious that he thinks he has any hope to cling on to. _Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, in as much as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness._

 

 

It becomes a game, to see how long it is before he loses all hope. It's hilarious to tease him, to remind him how desperate he's being.  _Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow._

 _(One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it)_  

_Not forever._

Isaac gets locked in a freezer. It was Stiles' idea. He laughs after he thinks of it before shaking it off and feeling guilty.  _Progress._

 

 

_(Maybe they'll win. They'll shine light on your darkness and smoke you out)_

_Ah, but that will never work. To light a candle is to cast a shadow. I cannot be defeated so easily._

_(Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow)_

He thinks he's being clever. All he's really doing though is showing how his speech has changed to a more riddled language, to the language of a trickster.

_Now, you don't want to do that Stiles. After all, you can't study darkness by flooding it with light._

 

 

"Are they saying that Stiles is dying? He is, you know." Stiles doesn't even fight it. It feels less like Stiles is a separate entity now, but that they have morphed into one, a true "we."

_So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing._

Lydia does fight it though, refuses to believe that Stiles is disappearing, that Stiles is nearly gone. Oh yes, her screams are even better when she's dying.

 

 

 "This isn't you, Stiles."

 

_I’m a bearer of darkness._

_I’m feared and often hated._

_I’m a symbol of the unwanted,_

_An omen that leaves you jaded._

_Some people can predict my coming,_

_But then you’ll forever see_

_Things lurking around corners…_

_Are you sure that it was me?_

 

"It is now." 

 

 

_Easily broken._

_A people always ends resembling it's shadow._

**Author's Note:**

> People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty if revealed only if there is a light from within." -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
> 
> Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." -Terry Pratchett
> 
> Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, in as much as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness." -Carl Jung
> 
> So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing." - T. S. Eliot
> 
> The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness." -Nikos Kazantzakis
> 
> In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time." -W Somerset Maugham
> 
> You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light." -Edward Abbey
> 
> Man dies of cold, not of darkness." -Miguel de Unamuno
> 
> The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive." -Robert Heinlein
> 
> Humor is everywhere in that there's irony in just about anything a human does." -Bill Nye
> 
> That's the irony in the work: the best stories are the worst things that happen. My best times were somebody else's worst." -Michael Connelly
> 
> In a cruel and evil world, being cynical can allow you to get some entertainment out of it." -Daniel Waters
> 
> Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow." -Helen Keller
> 
> A people always ends by resembling its shadow." -Rudyard Kipling
> 
> What is life? A madness. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story. And the greatest good is little enough; for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams." -Pedro Calderon de la Barca
> 
> Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow." -Aesop
> 
> One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it." -Elizabeth Bauen
> 
> To light a candle is to cast a shadow." -Ursula K Le Guin
> 
> Loss and possession, death and life are one. There falls no shadow where there shines no sun." -Hilaire Belloc
> 
> The shadow cares for itself, not for you." -Julius Streicher
> 
> Power may be at the end of a gun, but sometimes it's also at the end of a shadow." -Jean Genet


End file.
